He doesn’t come here very often but this time he’s on a desperate mission to win Scotland back for Labour with a promise of a better future for the Scottish people.

There is, however, one major stumbling block for Corbyn, and he’s come across it at every twist and turn on his whistle-stop tour of our small nation. Because the big issue is Brexit, always Brexit.

In Scotland, he can’t escape this elephant in the room – we don’t want Brexit, but Labour aren’t listening. And if Labour won’t listen to Scottish voters, if they won’t hear the 62 per cent and rising who support staying in Europe, then they haven’t got a hope in hell of winning back voters any time soon.

It’s no secret that Labour’s popularity as a whole across the UK has suffered as a result of their enigmatic Brexit stance. Their policy is designed to be vague in the hope that young Labour voters won’t discover the hard Brexit tendency in the old leadership cadre.

Here is a party in opposition to one of the most incompetent, scandal-ridden UK governments in our recent history and still Labour are lagging behind in the last three polls. No matter what horrendous right-wing nonsense the Tories spew forth on a daily basis, from threatening to withdraw foreign aid, intimidating migrant workers, attacking the poor, the sick and the vulnerable with callous austerity measures and dismantling our beloved NHS, Labour just can’t establish a clear lead.

This should be their biggest opportunity yet to seize the day and bring down this chaotic government. But Corbyn is so far-left on Brexit that he’s come full circle to bang into the far-right on the other side. When two opposing parties agree on the biggest disaster to hit British politics in living history, they leave no real choice for the voter. And the voter says, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

Except in Scotland of course where we have chosen the SNP, who, with the Scottish Greens, have presented a realistic and complete analysis of the importance of our place in Europe. Scottish Labour and their Tory counterparts are still scrambling far below for second place in the polls here. For die-hard Unionists, it’s a difficult choice between Colonel “Tank Commander” Davidson who hides behind baking when the tough gets going, or Scottish Labour’s Richard Leonard, who goes tough on the EU despite Scotland’s democratic will to remain.

The SNP have stretched out the hand of friendship to Labour, asking for their support to at least stay in the single market and customs union as part of the leaving negotiations, to minimise the disastrous consequences of this move. But that door has been firmly slammed in Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford’s faces. Corbyn and Leonard would rather throw in their lot with their age-old enemy than countenance anything other than a hard Brexit.

It seems disingenuous of Corbyn to claim that his party’s pledge to protect public services, boost wages and tackle inequality will deliver for Scotland when he supports leaving the customs union and the single market. We know now how that’s going to pan out for us and it’s not a pretty picture.

The Tories were caught blue handed in accusing the Scottish Government of “scaremongering” on Brexit when it then turned out that the Scottish estimates of hard Brexit impact were less than those of their own Treasury civil servants.

The Tory response was interesting when the media started to hound them for an explanation. Most of their nonentities went into hiding while “Ruth the truth” would only agree to an interview as to whether her celebrity dough was rising!

Labour of course haven’t bothered to do their own impact assessment of the cost of leaving EU, which speaks volumes. So Corbyn’s promises don’t add up. They don’t make any economic sense. They’re not backed up by action where they have the political gravitas to make a difference.

Just look at the huge gulf between SNP-led Scotland and Labour-led Wales. In Scotland, we have no tuition fees, no bedroom tax and have pledged to remove the public sector pay cap; in Wales, the Labour-led government have failed to mitigate Tory austerity, have maintained the pay cap and still charges students fees to study at their universities. Not much equality of opportunity going on there, especially from a party that claims to be for the many not the few.

As for Labour’s record in Westminster, they’re on even shakier ground, abstaining instead of standing up to the Tories on their abhorrent welfare policies. Labour have enabled the Tories at every twist and turn by their silence and inaction. Sitting on the fence while your country crumbles into unthinkable poverty and chaos is not a good look for a party that would like to be king.

What are Labour for if they can’t fight back when in opposition? And what are Labour really offering Scotland if they can’t see us as part of our larger European community with all the benefits we gain from membership, with our human rights protected, valued trade partners maintained and regulated, as well as free movement?

Richard Leonard likes to use the word “radical” on a regular basis to describe his vision for Scotland. But in reality, the most radical thing he could do is stand up to Corbyn and admit that Brexit is an act of economic self-harm. Time is running out fast; let’s hope Labour find their backbone before real damage is done to the Scottish people. I’m not hopeful.

Ipsoregulated

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